'Next 24 hours': Fabrizio Romano says deal for 20-y/o Newcastle target is close to completion

Fabrizio Romano has taken to X to confirm that Santos striker Marcos Leonardo is on the move.

Newcastle United have been interested in the 20-year-old for a few weeks heading into the transfer window but didn't act fast enough.

It now looks like Leonardo is destined for Benfica according to Fabrizio Romano who has issued two updates on the deal.

The deal moved quickly

The first confirming that Benfica had submitted a bid of €18million (£15.5million) which had been accepted by Santos.

That was then followed up an hour or so later by this:

"More on Marcos Leonardo: he will be new Benfica player within the next 24 hours.

"Clubs checking on final details then… here we go, coming soon."

Benfica have done it right

It's not so much the fact that Newcastle are missing out again as we're not even sure how concrete our interest was if it was there at all.

For us it's about how quickly that deal got done. It shows that not all transfers have to drag on through the entire window.

Newcastle need to get their fingers out. Eddie Howe has said they won't be reactionary in the window and that's fine, it doesn't have to be reaction, just some kind of action would be nice.